When parents come into the hospital with their children to initiate the diet, we explain to them that the body burns three types of fuel to produce energy. These fuel types are:
- CARBOHYDRATES: Starches, sugars, breads, cereals grains, fruits, vegetables.
- FATS: Butter, margarine, oil, mayonnaise.
- PROTEINS: Meat, fish, poultry, cheese, eggs, milk.
Carbohydrates comprise about 50 to 60 percent of the average American's daily caloric intake. They are the least expensive and most efficient source of food energy. When carbohydrates are digested, the body converts them to glucose.
Glucose is the fuel source burned by the body to produce energy under normal circumstances. When its supply of glucose is limited, the body first burns adipose (fatty) tissue for energy. If caloric needs are not met by body fat, the body then draws from its protein stores (muscle), compromising good health. The body cannot store large amounts of glucose: it maintains only about a twenty-four-hour supply. Fasting for twenty-four hours depletes body glucose. Once glucose is depleted, as during fasting, the body automatically draws on its other energy source-stored body fat.
In the absence of glucose, fat is not burned completely, but leaves a residue of "soot" or "ash" in the form of ketone bodies (acetone and aceto-acetic acid). These ketone bodies build up in the blood. The excess is cleaned out by the kidneys and excreted in the urine.
The ketogenic diet deliberately maintains this build up of ketone bodies in the blood by forcing the body to burn fat, instead of glucose, as its primary source of energy. When ketone bodies are large enough, as indicated by a simple urine test, it is said that the body is "ketotic" (pronounced key-tah´-tic) or in a state of "ketosis." Ketosis is also evidenced by a fruity, sweet odour to the breath.
Fat energy is the basis of the ketogenic diet. In the presence of large levels of ketone bodies, seizures are frequently controlled.
Unfortunately, we do not yet know precisely why the diet works. |
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